Mo'Nique Opens Up On Homophobia & the Hollywood Backlash she’s faced!
You can't accuse Mo’Nique of not "playing" the Hollywood game. In the past few months, we've talked about her struggle in Hollywood and her latest film, Blackbird (in theaters now), more than we ever commented on her Oscar-win for Precious, her sitcom "The Parkers" or her stand-up career. Score for her!
And in the latest issue of Rolling Out, Mo'Nique smartly keeps the "blackballing" conversation going, by talking about the supposed Hollywood backlash she received after demanding a salary worthy of an Oscar-winner. This conversation isn't going away...and we're here for it.
On her film Blackbird, and why she's producing the project:
“The point [is] acceptance and love and people really taking a stand to be what they had no choice in being. So when you see all of these things happening and when [co-star and co-producer] Isaiah Washington called our attorney, Ricky Anderson, and said ‘I really think Mo’Nique would want to get behind this’; by the time we got finished reading page one, we knew that it was something that we needed to and wanted to be involved with, because it’s necessary and it’s time.”
On Black homophobia versus other cultures:
“There was a time that I really believed it was harder in the Black community because that’s the community that I’m involved with most and that’s what I saw the most,” she says. “But once we began to take this to different festivals around the country, and you began to hear Latin brothers, Italian brothers, Asian brothers, Black brothers, White brothers — and they were all saying the same thing: ‘That’s my story.’ Most were saying ‘I was thrown away by my family’ or ‘the church didn’t accept me.’ So there was a time when I truly believed that our community was harder, but it’s all communities.
On healing in Black communities:
“It’s time that we have those open and honest conversations around the dinner table and in our churches — in the barbershops and in the beauty salons. When we have conversations where we walk away saying ‘Let me do the best I can and be the best human being I can be and treat people they way they want to be treated,’ overnight, [the world] just becomes a better place.”
On the "alleged" Hollywood backlash:
“How do I feel about the backlash? I don’t. Because I’ve never been afraid of the truth. I don’t know that I would use the word ‘backlash’ because when you say things that are true — what is a backlash? It’s just the truth. It’s not a secret, it’s not hidden. It’s the truth.
On being "difficult"
"When people say ‘Mo’Nique can be difficult,’ I understand why people can say that. When I was doing this photo shoot, I remember I was in my dressing room and I wasn’t dressed. And the stylist’s assistant, who was a young man, just walked into my room. It was a closed door. Did he knock? No, he just walked in and began to put some things up. But I wasn’t dressed. So I had to ask him to please excuse himself and not walk into my room again — it’s a closed door. Well, he said ‘I didn’t do that. The photographer walked me over and opened the door.’ He goes and gets the photographer — the door is closed, but once again, he doesn’t knock and walks in. I asked him ‘Where do you do that? Especially if you know there’s a woman on the other side?’ I said to him ‘If I were a different person, this photo shoot would go differently, but I’m going to need you to excuse yourself and do this the right way.’ Those types of things [portray] me to be ‘difficult,’ because lots of times people won’t say anything. They’ll just go along with it.”
On why she shoots down the "backlash" and "blackballed" theories:
"I don’t buy into that. There are just things that happen that we don’t want to really take responsibility for and it’s easier to say ‘Oh well, they were being a diva. They were being difficult.’ No one wants to tell the whole story. People can say ‘Mo’Nique is difficult’ just because I’m simply holding you to your word and asking you to be respectful. I understand why people say it, but we don’t always know the truth. How do I feel about the backlash? I don’t. Because I’ve never been afraid of the truth.”
Read the full article here and share your thoughts!
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